It started with Đạo last week. He had a fever and headache. Then Đán had a stomachache. He used the bathroom every half an hour. I was debating whether I should cancel their Summit camp, but my wife let them attend.

I volunteered to drive the Scout troops to Summit, which was five hours away. Last Saturday, the night before the trip, I started coughing. In addition, I worried too much, I couldn’t sleep. I worried about Đạo and Đán. Because our newer minivan was still in the shop, I had to take the old minivan. The AC minivan had been inconsistent. I worried about their comfort.

Due to lacking of sleep, I asked my wife to come with me on Sunday. I needed help driving back. As soon as we got back home after over 10 hours on the road, I took a bath and went straight to bed around 8:00 pm. I took some cough syrup and it seemed to help. I am feeling better today, but still can’t rollerblade because of my gout.

Today both my wife and Xuân got sick. I hope they will recover before Friday so we can go to Canada as planned. Nothing seemed to work in our favor. This summer is not going too well so far. I hope Vương and my mother-in-law won’t be next.

Thấy tôi đọc Vũ Trọng Phụng, mấy anh bạn già giới thiệu Hồ Biểu Chánh. Lòng dạ đàn bà là quyển tiểu thuyết đầu tiên của nhà văn họ Hồ tôi vừa đọc xong. Chỉ ba chương gồm 36 trang nên đọc rất nhanh. Nội dung về ông Hội đồng mê gái lấy bà nhỏ bỏ bê vợ con. Ngắn gọn, hết.

Physician-poet Cao Nguyên, the author of Thơ Mưa (Rain Poems), follows up with badòngthơ (Three-Lines Poems). The form for badòngthơ is similar to the Japanese haiku, but Cao Nguyên also plays with three, five, and seven syllables.

As someone who is rediscovering his native language, I appreciate Cao Nguyên’s simple wordplay. As a designer, I appreciate his generous use of white space. When he asked me to bring badòngthơ to the web, I jumped at the opportunity.

Since the web has plenty of white space, I decided to keep it to one page. Readers just scroll to read the next poem. For the book title, I kept the web version the same as the print version, which is set in SVN Conqueror Didot, a Vietnamese-supported version of AW Conqueror, designed by Jean François Porchez.

In the print version, the body text is set in Microsoft Sans Serif, which is clean and legible. The Vietnamese diacritics for Microsoft Sans Serif, however, are a bit off, especially the circumflex-acute and the circumflex-grave combinations. For the web version, I set the main text in Inclusive Sans, designed by Olivia King, instead.

The website started off with 15 poems. The print version has 119 poems. If you can read Vietnamese or want to learn Vietnamese, you will enjoy these delightful poems. Go ahead, give badòngthơ a read.

I spent countless hours listening to Thelonious Monk played Thelonious Monk. Recently I am enjoying Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington. When Monk played Duke, he added his own spin into it. On “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If You Ain’t Got That Swing),” Monk not only swung, but he also sliced up the melody into staccato pieces. He chopped up the “Mood Indigo” and assembled it back together as Monk always had done. My personal favorite is his piano solo take on “Solitude,” in which he deployed his dissonances and angular melodic twists. No one plays Duke like Monk.

Tiểu thuyết tình cảm của Vũ Trọng Phụng về mối tình ba trai một gái. Cả ba chàng điều yêu nàng đắm đuối. Nàng thì chỉ yêu anh nhà nghèo nhưng bị ba mẹ ép buộc lấy chồng nhà giàu. Truyện ngắn, đơn giản, không bi lụy. Bài học từ sách là lòng kiêu ngạo hại cả một đời người. Tốt hơn hết là yêu thì cứ yêu đừng kiêu ngạo.

Our 2018 Toyota Sienna LE has been residing at Ourisman Fairfax Toyota since the morning after Memorial Day, which has been almost four weeks already. I took the car back to the dealer just two months after dropping $1,245 to fix the airbag warning light issue. The issue occurred again.

Two weeks after the drop-off, an Ourisman Fairfax Toyota technician reported that there were chemical spills that melted the wire-cover plastic and the plastic inside of the door panel. The chemical was from a bug spray.

A few months ago, a bottle of Repel Insect Repellent was accidentally spilt into the passenger front-side door. The Deet in the chemical melted plastics. I filed an auto claim to our American Family Connect Property and Casualty Insurance Company. Last Tuesday, the insurance company sent an independent appraiser to the dealer to assess the issue. They are still investigating to find out if this is a wear-and-tear issue or an accidental issue, which would be covered under the comprehensive policy.

I hope they will make the decision soon. If they decline the coverage, I will have to appeal. There’s no way I am going to drop another $3,500 to fix it. At this point, I just don’t know what to do anymore. I just have to wait patiently for the insurance company.

Even though my car is at the dealer, Ourisman Fairfax Toyota has loaned me a car to get around. Mad props to them.

My toe gout is slowly going away. I can’t wait for it to be completely gone so I can go back to the skateparks. I must have gained 10 pounds in the last two weeks from eating and sitting around waiting impatiently for my foot to heal.

We’re about to head to Canada next week, but our minivan is still at the dealer. At this time, our insurance is still investigating the damage. It is most likely that our car won’t be ready by next week. We’re screwed. I am going to fight this battle all the way with the insurance company. So if they want to drag it on, I’ll keep dragging it on.

I hate dealing with these types of inconveniences, but I have to. I putting myself under these pressures? It comes down to spending issue. I am not like going broke any time soon, but I keep worrying about it. Anyway, I just need to chill the fuck out. I tell myself that all the time, but I still can’t do it.

iA:

Writing connects us to ourselves, our friends and family, to people who know us and it creates new contacts, with some luck, maybe even far into the future.

This is why I encourage my kids to write and I am enjoying reading their stories. Here are their blogs:

• Lil Xuân Shine
• Lil Gui
• Tini Gui

Tôi ít khi nghe Việt rap. Có nghe cũng chỉ nghe những bài single trên YouTube. Mấy hôm nay được nghe trọn vẹn một album Việt rap của Lil Wuyn. Tôi chưa từng nghe qua Lil Wuyn nên đây là lần đầu đến với An qua một quan điểm tươi mới (fresh). Bài hát tựa đề gây ấn tượng ngay từ flow đến production đến lyrics. Chỉ với tiếng đàn acoustic guitar đơn giản cũng đủ để Lil Wuyn trải lòng của mình về đời sống:

Hành trình không phải là hành hình
Thành hình, thành tài, và là mình
Rèn luyện, cần cù, và tiết kiệm
Càng lớn càng phải có trách nhiệm
Với gia đình, âm nhạc quanh mình.

Cá nhân tôi thích Lil Wuyn raps về tiếng Việt:

Tiếng Việt phong phú
Nghe một hồi lú lúc nào không hay
Có khi líu lưỡi, có khi thật khó
Để phát ra thành âm hay.

Lil Wuyn đem khá nhiêu punchlines vào những verse của mình. “Mở mắt” với Đen, chẳng hạn, Lil Wuyn raps, “Ta cứ chấp thuận những lời phê phán / Vì đến một ngày họ cũng sẽ chê… chán”. Không những chỉ Đen mà còn có sự hiện diện của đàn anh như Young H và Rhymastic trong album của Lil Wuyn.

Với một concept chặt chẽ từ đầu đến cuối, An là một album đầy hứa hẹn cho tương lai. Một album rap Việt có chất thơ và lời động lực mà không cần văng tục. Như Lil Wuyn bài tỏ trong “More Life”: “Tao chọn âm thầm và làm nên chuyện / Chứ không tuyên bố rằng mình sẽ làm nên chuyện”. Keep pushing it, lil bro!

“Lục xì” là cách người Hoa Việt phát âm hai từ tiếng Anh “look, see”. Nhà Lục xì là cơ quan y tế chuyên chữa bệnh hoa liễu cho phụ nữ làm đĩ. Ở Hà Nội vào thiệp niên 30, thống kê hơn 5000 đỉ lậu — “nghĩa là cứ ba mươi lăm người lương thiện lại có một người thường nhật sinh sống bằng sự gieo rắc vi trùng hoa liễu”, theo phóng viên Vũ Trọng Phụng. Khác với tiểu thuyết Làm đĩ của ông, Lục xì là phóng sự về nạn mại dâm và nạn hoa liễu. Đọc không văn vẻ và hấp dẫn như tiểu thuyết nhưng hữu ích.